“This one is thine,” said the Arab.
Ben-Hur looked, and, lo! it was Aldebaran, the swiftest and brightest of the sons of Mira, and, next to Sirius, the beloved of the sheik; and he knew the old man’s heart came to him along with the gift.
The corpse in the atrium was taken up and buried by night; and, as part of Messala’s plan, a courier was sent off to Gratus to make him at rest by the announcement of Ben-Hur’s death—this time past question.
Ere long a wine-shop was opened near the Circus Maximus, with inscription over the door:
THORD THE NORTHMAN.
BOOK SIXTH
“Is that a Death? and are there two?
Is Death that woman’s mate?
Her skin was as white as leprosy,
The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she,
Who thicks man’s blood with cold.”
COLERIDGE.
CHAPTER I
Our story moves forward now thirty days from the night Ben-Hur left Antioch to go out with Sheik Ilderim into the desert.
A great change has befallen—great at least as respects the fortunes of our hero. Valerius Gratus has been succeeded by Pontius Pilate!